The growing interest in crypto added with the news media's sudden change of stance from "Why you should not invest in bitcoin" to "10 reasons for investing in bitcoin" - does bring in a lot of newbie meat into the market. Those who are unable to buy gold or stocks will try something alternative and the answer quickly ends up in bitcoin.
Point is that the whales need a place to dump their shitload. So the newbies are the ones. If they dont do the FOMO/FUD the cycles will become slowed. Lack of prior trading knowledge or knowledge of speculative markets makes them susceptible to manipulated markets.